Despite a collective agreement with ver.di, there could soon be renewed strikes at Lufthansa's holiday airline Discover. The rival unions Ufo and VC feel they have been deceived by the Lufthansa Group.
At Lufthansa's holiday airline Discover, the signs point to a strike despite a newly concluded collective agreement. The rival unions Vereinigung Cockpit (VC) and Ufo could soon call on the flight crew to stop work again because the current negotiations were concluded not by them but by their rivals ver.di. In the end, the passengers would be the ones to suffer in the unions' power struggle.
First collective agreements for the airline founded three years ago
Three years after the founding of Lufthansa Discover, the first collective agreements for the airline's flying staff have now been concluded. The company and ver.di announced today that they have reached agreements on salaries and working conditions for pilots and cabin crew. The relevant contracts were signed overnight. Agreements on salaries and working conditions have been reached for both the approximately 500 pilots and the approximately 1,400 employees in the cabin.
Salary increases, allowances and special payments have been agreed for both professional groups until the end of 2027. Company pension schemes, duty rosters and sick pay subsidies have also been taken into account. “We have not made a dumping collective agreement,” says ver.di negotiator Marvin Reschinsky. However, it remains unclear how many of the employees are actually organized with ver.di – or with the unions VC and Ufo established in the Lufthansa Group. A spokeswoman for the airline explained that they had no knowledge of the employees' respective union membership.
After months of negotiations, which were actually concluded, Ufo and VC feel they have been deceived by the Lufthansa Group. They particularly doubt that ver.di organizes a significant number of Discover employees. Ufo officials speak internally of “a handful,” while together with VC they easily represent “around 1,000 colleagues.” “Ver.di is appointed by the employer as a collective bargaining partner,” says Ufo collective bargaining expert Harry Jaeger.
Lufthansa strategy with Subsidiaries
Ver.di representative Reschinsky brushes off the accusations. “We are not revealing our cards on the level of organization – like every other union.” For ver.di, the agreement is a success because up to now the union has only been properly represented in the Lufthansa Group on ground staff and in the Eurowings cabins. The only union that has a collective agreement for pilots is the cargo subsidiary Aerologic.
Discover, a relatively small holiday airline with 27 Airbus jets, flies exclusively from Frankfurt and Munich and is primarily intended to compete with Condor in the tourism business. The VC fears that more and more regular Lufthansa flights will be handed over to the cheaper subsidiary.
The DGB union ver.di could benefit from Lufthansa's strategy of putting its existing airlines under cost pressure through new flight operations. Initially, there will be no wage conditions at all and later lower wage conditions. This logic does not only apply to Aerologic in the freight sector: Discover Airlines and City Airlines are two young companies ready to fly long- and medium-haul routes more cheaply than the Lufthansa core company, which has the highest wages under collective agreements.
VC announces ballot
For customers, the differences are barely noticeable. Group CEO Carsten Spohr has therefore long since ordered additional aircraft for the young subsidiaries. “VC and Ufo can campaign for better agreements at Discover,” Reschinsky teases. Ultimately, it is clear to all those involved that this can only be achieved through industrial action. Only in the event of competing collective agreements would it be necessary to determine, according to the Collective Bargaining Act, which union is the strongest in the company and is then allowed to conclude collective agreements.
The VC has already announced another ballot among its members at Discover. Last winter, pilots went on strike in three waves and flight attendants once, cancelling some flights. In February, pilots from the Lufthansa Boeing fleet even went on a solidarity strike. The new VC president, Andreas Pinheiro, is once again ready to fight and says: “If Discover continues to categorically rule out a tariff agreement with the VC, industrial action in the summer and beyond will be possible again.”
Ver.di, on the other hand, hopes that the flying staff at the low-cost subsidiaries may not feel properly represented by the unions VC and Ufo established within the group. “We are available for a collective agreement at City Airlines,” says Reschinsky. The next round in the tough union battle at Lufthansa has thus begun.
